2 Kings 18:4

Hezekiah tore down the high places, pillars, and Asherah, and even destroyed Moses' bronze serpent because Israel had begun worshiping it. He shows that even good things become idols when venerated.

Cross-references · 23

• 2 Chr 31:1Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah, and broke the pillars in pieces, cut down the Asherah poles, and broke down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, also in Ephraim and Manasseh, until they had destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his possession, into their own cities.
• Num 21:8–9Yahweh said to Moses, “Make a venomous snake, and set it on a pole. It shall happen, that everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.”
• 2 Kgs 18:22But if you tell me, ‘We trust in Yahweh our God;’ isn’t that he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem?’
• Lev 26:30I will destroy your high places, and cut down your incense altars, and cast your dead bodies upon the bodies of your idols; and my soul will abhor you.
• Deut 7:5But you shall deal with them like this. You shall break down their altars, dash their pillars in pieces, and cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their engraved images with fire.
• 1 Kgs 3:2–3However the people sacrificed in the high places, because there was not yet a house built for Yahweh’s name.
• 2 Kgs 12:3However the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and burned incense in the high places.
• Exod 23:24You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor follow their practices, but you shall utterly overthrow them and demolish their pillars.
• Judg 6:25That same night, Yahweh said to him, “Take your father’s bull, even the second bull seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is by it.
• Judg 6:28When the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah was cut down that was by it, and the second bull was offered on the altar that was built.
• Deut 12:2–3You shall surely destroy all the places in which the nations that you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains, and on the hills, and under every green tree.
• 1 Kgs 15:12–14He put away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.
• 1 Kgs 22:43He walked in all the way of Asa his father. He didn’t turn aside from it, doing that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes. However the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.
• 2 Chr 33:3For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; and he raised up altars for the Baals, made Asheroth, and worshiped all the army of the sky, and served them.
• 2 Kgs 14:4However the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and burned incense in the high places.
• Ps 78:58For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their engraved images.
• Ezek 20:28–29For when I had brought them into the land, which I swore to give to them, then they saw every high hill, and every thick tree, and they offered there their sacrifices, and there they presented the provocation of their offering; there also they made their pleasant aroma, and they poured out there their drink offerings.
• 2 Kgs 15:4However the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and burned incense in the high places.
• 2 Chr 19:3Nevertheless there are good things found in you, in that you have put away the Asheroth out of the land, and have set your heart to seek God.”
• John 3:14–15As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
• 2 Kgs 15:35However the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and burned incense in the high places. He built the upper gate of Yahweh’s house.
• 2 Kgs 16:15King Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, “On the great altar burn the morning burnt offering, the evening meal offering, the king’s burnt offering, his meal offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, their meal offering, and their drink offerings; and sprinkle on it all the blood of the burnt offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice; but the bronze altar will be for me to inquire by.”
• 2 Kgs 23:4The king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the threshold, to bring out of Yahweh’s temple all the vessels that were made for Baal, for the Asherah, and for all the army of the sky, and he burned them outside of Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel.

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